Beyond Common Sense

Another of my Christmas movie favorites is White Christmas.  What a wonderful plot! Bing Crosby, the ever big-hearted do-gooder, has a great plan to help his former army commander, General Waverly.  However, when the housekeeper eavesdrops on his conversation, she only catches a part of his plan and thinks the worst.  When she tells Betty, the sister who is falling in love with “Bob,” her heart also thinks the worst and she flees the scene.

Of course, all turns out well; the truth is revealed; her knight is back up on his white charger; everyone lives happily ever after!

Mistaken Identities.  Wrong Conclusions.  It’s the stuff that great plots are made of!  But how often does our God take the brunt of our wrong conclusions and mistakes in His identity?  Life gets tough and we blame God, claiming that He is mean or doesn’t care.  Tragedy strikes and we blame God.  We may even get to the point that we shake our fists to the heavens and hurl blasphemous remarks in the face of our Maker!

And what does He do?  What does our awesome, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient (love those three O’s!!) heavenly Father do?  HE LOVES US!!!!  He patiently waits for us to look up!

Usually, at this time of the year, I look back over my devotions and try to see what one lesson rises to the top as God’s heavenly baseball bat for me!  This year it was one word: focus.

Where we focus makes ALL the difference.  If Betty had focused on all she knew to be true about Bob, the story would never have happened!  🙂  How much drama would we be able to leave out of our lives if we just focused on all of God’s wonderful attributes?  AND, how many tense moments would dissolve if we would focus on other’s GOOD traits instead of the bad ones that may be in our faces at the moment?

A new year is coming.  What will be your focus?  We have absolutely no idea what 2014 will bring, but God knew a billion years ago!  That’s enough to blow any focus!!!  Oh, how awesome our God is!  His love is beyond anything our human hearts can fathom.  Didn’t He prove that in a stinky stable?!! I mean really – how many of us would even have placed our newborn in a dresser drawer much less a manger?  And then there’s the cross…and the scourging…and the crown of thorns…and the railing accusations…and the spiting…and hitting…and forsaking…

Check your focus.

“We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.’ Revelation 11:17

(FYI – the word ‘almighty’ is used fifty-seven times in the Bible: thirty-one times in Job!  I guess perhaps his life needed a good focus!)